Nursing bottle holder



March 25, 1958 s. F AUNCE 2,828,097

NURSING BOTTLE HOLDER Filed March 29, 1954 v IN VEN TOR. 67am fir'fhvzvce,

-- .Paten-ted-.Mar.25,1958

I NURSING BOTTLE HOLDER Stuart FJFaunce', Norman, Okla.

. Application March 29, 1954, Serial'No. 419,246

.2.Claims. (Cl. 248-106) The present invention relates to-a. nursing bottle holder and particularly to such a devicewhich is capable of being readily folded for movement ,and storage.

One of the most time consuming chores of the' busy mother is that of bottle feeding her small child. There has been wanting a relatively foolproof device for supporting the nursing bottle during these feeding periods, thereby permitting the mother to leave the child unattended, while nursing, andgo about her other" chores.

Such a device, in order to be satisfactory, should embody the following features:

The bottle should be held in such a manner that:the

:nipple fi-ts naturally into the babys mouth;

The bottle should be held in such a manner as to per- "mit slight movement thereof, in response torthe movement of the babys lips, in order to minimize the amount of air which will be swallowed by the baby;

The device should be adaptable to support most types of nursing bottles;

The bottle should be so supported that the nipple will come out of the babys mouth in casehe coughs or stops nursing;

The device should be such as to permit the baby to kick and flail his arms about, while nursing, without upsetting the device;

The device should be capable of adjustment to permit its use while the baby lies in its bed, bassinet, buggy, or on a table or other fiat surfaces;

The device should be easily set up and taken down without dismantling; and

There should be nothing about the device which might cause harm to the baby, such as sharp corners or projections, or the like.

The primary object of this invention is to provide a device for supporting a nursing bottle which will include all the features and functional advantages set forth above.

A further object is to provide such a device having the above stated features which will be relatively simple and inexpensive to manufacture.

Further objects will become apparent as the description proceeds.

To the accomplishment of the above and related objects, my invention may be embodied in the form illustrated in the accompanying drawings, attention being called to the fact, however, that the drawings are illustrative only, and that change may be made in the specific construction illustrated and described, so long as the scope of the appended claims is not violated.

Fig. 1 is a pictorial view showing my invention in its position of intended use;

Fig. 2 is an enlarged perspective view, partially in section, showing a detail of construction;

Fig. 3 is an enlarged perspective view, partially in section, showing a further detail of construction; and

Fig. 4 is a perspective view, showing the manner in which the device can be folded for transportation or Storage.

2 Referringsimore. particularly v to theedrawings and especially=to Fig. 1, it will beseen-that my. device .com-

---prisesa frame in the form of a. tripod, referred. 10.-genof' leg members- 11.

erallyby' the reference numeral 10, and comprising a .trio Such leg members are preferably in the form of relatively rigid rods: and. are connected together at one end by means of arubberoid :disc 12.

.Said discispro'vided with a-trio of passages:13 substantially equiangularly: spaced therein and: one..end-.of eachofthe rods 11 is formed with a .reduced portion- 14 for insertion-through-one of-saidpassages. -The.ends.of said rods are then headed as at 15 to fix the rods securely to disc 12. -Thus,.it will be seen, that .the legs 11 of the .tripod -10 are .f-reeto be spread apart any amount-desirable, by flexure of the disc 12.

In orderto control the degree of spread of the legsll, I provide. a. spider-element, indicated generally. bythe reference numeral 16, and comprising an annulus 17 preferably formed of a rubberoidmaterial. Said annulus --is.provided, preferably integrally therewith, with a .trio

ofarms 18 extending radially therefrom and spaced substantially apart. a Eyelets 19 are preferably. integrally formed atthedistal ends of arms 18. 'A. leg member .11 is snugly received through-eachof eyelets 19 permitting the spider 16 to-be-moved readily up ordown leg mem' bers 11 to vary the degree of spread of such leg members.

Within annulus 17, I provide a. relatively rigid. disc or plate 20 here shown as being securely supportedin annulusv 17 by means of the tongueandgroove arrangement. 21. Plate- 20xis provided with an aperture 22. and

with a slot 23 extending radiallytherefrom.

Aflexible strand member 24, here shown as comprising a length of ball-chain 25 and an elastic cord 26, is supported from plate 20. The diameter of the balls of chain 25 is small enough to pass through the aperture 22 but too large to pass through the slot 23. The efiective length of the strand 24 can, thereby, be varied by shifting the chain 25 through aperture 22 and then moving the chain laterally into slot 23.

An elastic ring 27 is preferably integrally formed in the distal end of cord 26. A nursing bottle 28, of any cross-sectional contour, can he slipped through ring 27 and will be held frictionally therein by said ring member. I have found that by positioning ring member 27 approximately one-third of the distance from the bottom of the bottle to the top of the bottle, the bottle will be supported in the proper position for feeding a child lying beneath the tripod 10.

In use, a baby is placed upon a suitable surface and the spider element 16 is then adjusted along legs 11 to spread the legs sufficiently to straddle the child. The bottle 28 is then inserted through ring 27, as described above, and the length of the strand 24 is then adjusted so that the nipple on the bottle will remain in the babys mouth while the baby is nursing, but will pull away from the babys mouth should he cough or stop nursing for any reason. The provision of the elastic cord 26 permits the bottle 28 to move in response to movement of the babys lips, thereby minimizing the amount of air which will be sucked into the babys mouth and swallowed by him.

Where a child is particularly active and likely to move about while feeding, it is sometimes necessary to provide additional means to prevent tipping of tripod 10 in case the child moves against one of the legs 11. To this end, I provide the spider element 29 formed of any suitable, soft, relatively flexible material, such as sheet rubber or fabric, and having provided, in the end of each of the arms 30 thereof, a socket 31. The ends of the rods 11 are inserted in sockets 31 in setting up the device. A blanket or the like is then spread over the spider 29 and the child is placed thereon. I have found that such anarrangement is very elfective in preventing accidental tipping of tripod 10. When the spider 29 is not used rubber tips 32 are placed on the lower ends of legs 11.

Whenit is desirable 'to foldjthe devicev for-transportation or storage, the eyelets "19 are moved up and down the respective leg members'll to permit the leg members to be moved into substantial parallelism as clearly illus tratedin Fig. 4. Prior to this however, the str and24 is removed from spider 16. flhering member 27 is then slipped over the lower endsof the legs 11 and the cord 26 and chain 25 are wound about the legs with the end along said leg members to permit the degree of spread of the chain 25 being, tucked through the ring 27. The legs are thus held securely in their folded position and the device presents a neatcompact package.

I claim as my invention: 1. In a device of the class'described, a tripod comprising a trio of leg members, a rubberoid disc having a trio of passages formed therein substanti ally 120 apart, one end of each of said leg members being inserted through one of said passages and fixed therein to permit spreading apart of the other ends of said leg members, and a plate member supporting a trio of elastic eyelets at points spaced substantially 120 about the periphery thereof, each of said leg members being snugly received through one of said eyelets and gripped thereby to support said plate member between said trio of leg members, said eyelets being axially slidably adjustable thereon to permit the degree of spread of said leg members to be varied.

22A nursing bottle holder comprising a trio of leg members, an elastically-flexible disc of rubberoid material formed to provide a plurality of separate sockets at angularly spaced'points, each of said leg members having an end engaged in one of said sockets whereby said leg member ends are connected together and the opposite of said opposite ends of said leg members to be varied, a flexible strand member supported from said plate member, and an endless elastic ring member supported from said strand member and frictionally engageable with a nursing bottle inserted through said ring member.

References Cited'iii the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 129,105 Collier July 16, 1872 366,833 fHipwell July 19, 1887 1,361,469 Kingsbury -L Dec. 7, 1920 1,464,452 Starck Aug. 7, 1923 1,465,759 Dey Aug. 21, 1923 1,486,508 Weeks Mar. 11, 1924 1,521,6195 Haas Jan.'6, 1925 1,558,169 Hume Oct. 20, 1925 1,629,156 Fleshner May 17, 1927 1,791,188 Bright Feb. 3, 1931 1,866,175 Rogers 2 July 5, 1932 2,059,996 Goldberg Nov. 3, 1936 2,303,728 Drayton et al. Dec. 1, 1942 2,466,496 Smith Apr. 5, 1949 2,638,296 Battle May 12, 1953 2,684,822 Odin July 27, 1954 2,733,881 Threlfall et al. Feb. 7, 1956 2,749,147 Herrschaft June 5, 1956 

